CricNama English: Saeed Anwar

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[Records] Shahid Afridi: most man-of-the-match awards for Pakistan

Anonymous at July 15, 2013 0

Shahid Afridi was ruled out of the 2013 Champions Trophy for being consistently inconsistent. The axing was a lesson for him. That is why when he returned today in Providence, Guyana, he went on the rampage. At a time when Pakistan had lost five wickets on 47 and there was a bleak prospect of the team reaching even 100, Afridi played a tremendous innings of 76 off 55. The need of the time was to stay at the crease as long as you could and play only the bad deliveries. Studded with five sixes and five fours, Afridi played an innings that he owed to the team for a long time. He played a similar innings in a recent tour of South Africa, but it proved fruitless. However, today’s innings was a nightmare for the opponents.

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Saeed Anwar had the honour of achieving most man-of-the-match awards for Pakistan before Shahid Afridi (Photo: WICB)[/caption]

And he did not just stop there. With a low score of 224, Pakistan needed a bowling performance as well. It was Afridi again this time who bowled superbly with a personal best of seven wickets for 12 runs in nine overs. It was also the best innings by a Pakistani in ODIs. Had he taken a one more wicket, he would have broken Chaminda Vaas’ world record of eight wickets.

The performance earned Afridi the man-of-the-match award – 30^th time in his 355-match career. This has made him the top Pakistani player to achieve most man-of-the-match awards. He is also among the top 10 international players to have claimed the award most of the times.

India’s Sachin Tendulkar has claimed most man-of-the-match awards in the one-day history. His tally was 62 and nobody is close to him in this regard. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya was second 48 awards. The complete list can be seen below:

Players achieving most man-of-the-match awards in ODIs

Name	Country	Career	Matches	Awards
Sachin Tendulkar	India	1989-2012	463	62
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	1989-2011	445	48
Jacques Kallis	South Africa	1996-2012	321	32
Ricky Ponting	Australia	1995-2012	375	32
Viv Richards	West Indies	1975-1991	187	31
Sourav Ganguly	India	1992-2007	311	31
Brian Lara	West Indies	1990-2007	299	30
Aravinda de Silva	Sri Lanka	1984-2003	308	30
Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	1996-to date	355	30
Saeed Anwar	Pakistan	1989-2003	247	28

Pakistan Saeed Anwar Today in History

[Today in History] Saeed Anwar, Chennai and 194 runs

Anonymous at May 21, 2013 0

Exactly 16 years ago from now, the two biggest cricket archrivals Pakistan and India were facing each other and the most stylish left-hand batsman of his time was at the crease amid an enthusiastic Chennai crowd. You must be reminiscing about the day. Yes, it was May 21, 1997 when Saeed Anwar played one of the best ODI innings in the sport’s history in an Azadi Cup match.

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One of the most successful Pakistani openers, Saeed Anwar was considered as a master of one-day cricket (Photo: Reuters) FILE PHOTO[/caption]

Anwar scored 194 off 146 and was, unfortunately, dismissed at a time when he was just six runs short of marking an important milestone in the cricket history – an ODI double-century. No player had reached 200 in one-day format before that and, in fact, Anwar was the only batsman to cross 190. He broke the 189-run record of great batsman Vivian Richards, set in 1984 against England.

The dominance of Anwar in the game can be gauged by the fact that as many as 118 runs in his innings were made in boundaries – 22 fours and five sixes. Moreover, playing a record-breaking innings on the rivals’ home ground when a player felt sick was itself miraculous. Piggybacking on Anwar’s exceptional performance, Pakistan later won the match by 35 runs.

Though Anwar had expertise in playing strokes on the off side, his pull shots were also quite superb, and Anil Kumble will never forget it as he was slapped 24 runs in an over by the left-hander.

One of the most successful Pakistani openers, Anwar was considered as a master of one-day cricket. With 8824 runs in 247 ODIs, he is third among the highest run getters for Pakistan. Anwar has many other ODI records under his belt, for instance, three consecutive ODI centuries and most ODI centuries (20) for Pakistan, but the innings that helped him win instant fame was none other than this.

For years, Saeed Anwar had the good fortune that no batsman succeeded to break his record despite coming so closer. Even after leveling Anwar’s score, Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry had to return back to the pavilion not out with a broken heart. But thirteen years after in February 2010, the great Sachin Tendulkar scored a double-century and not only broke Anwar’s record but also had his name recorded in cricket history as the first double centurion. Maybe it was God’s will that he chose a batsman like Tendulkar to break Anwar’s 13-year old record. And yes, the bowler who ended Anwar’s 194-innings was also Tendulkar.

Featured Nasir Jamshed Pakistan Pakistan in India 2012-13 Saeed Anwar Zaheer Abbas

Nasir Jamshed on the footprints of Saeed Anwar

Anonymous at January 05, 2013 0

Read this in Urdu

The brightest aspect of the historic victory of Pakistan in India was the brilliant performance by young batsman Nasir Jamshed, who has played a pivotal role in Pakistan’s win in the first two one-day international matches. He has scored centuries in both matches and is now eyeing a world record—scoring centuries in three consecutive one-day matches, a record held by Saeed Anwar, Asian Bradman Zaheer Abbas, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and the present captain AB de Villiers. However, no batsman has yet made four successive centuries.

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Nasir Jamshed can become third Pakistani batsman to score three consecutive hundreds (Photo: BCCI)[/caption]

Now, all eyes are on Jamshed whether he could make his place in this list at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

In Chennai, Jamshed played an unbeatable innings of 101 runs, playing a key role in Pakistan’s win over India. But, unfortunately, he wasn’t given the man-of-the-match award. However in the next match in Kolkata, his 106-run knock helped Pakistan seal victory and earn him the award.

This was his third consecutive century against India in ODIs. He had made a century against India in a group match of Asia Cup last year. Though Pakistan couldn’t win the match because of Virat Kohli’s deadly 183-run inning, Jamshed proved that his bat is prolific against the archrivals.

Now, if Nasir succeeds in playing a three-digit inning in Feroz Shah Kotla, this would be the fifth time in history that a batsman scores three back-to-back centuries in ODIs.

In the history of one-day cricket, the record of making three continuous centuries was first made by Zaheer Abbas in 1982-83, when he made three centuries against the traditional rival India in the one-day matches held at Multan, Lahore and Karachi. In the Multan one-day, which was the second match of the series, Pakistan got victory due to Abbas’ brilliant innings of 118 runs. He made 105 runs in the next match but India won the match by 18 runs. In the fourth match of the series at the National Stadium of Karachi, Abbas played a stormy innings of 113 off 99 balls, including 11 fours and three sixes. Pakistan won the match by eight wickets as a result and the series by 3-1.

Asian Bradman held the record for around a decade until 1993 when Saaed Anwar hit three back-to-back centuries in Sharjah.

In the Pepsi Champions Trophy played in October-November 1993 in Sharja, Anwar scored 107 against Sri Lanka, 131 against West Indies and 111 against Sri Lanka to get his name included in the record book. In the last match, Pakistan chased a 271-run target in the last over, thanks to Anwar, whose both innings proved fruitful.

In September-October 2002, Gibbs scored three centuries against Kenya, India and Bangladesh and in 2010, AB de Villiers scored two hundreds against India and one against West Indies to places their names in the list.

If Nasir makes a century in New Delhi, his name would also shine in the list and this would be the first time in cricket history that Pakistan whitewash their archrivals.

Batsmen who scored three consecutive centuries in ODIs

Player	Runs	Ground	Date
Zaheer Abbas	118	Multan	December 17, 1982
	105	Lahore	December 31, 1982
	113	Karachi	January 21, 1983
Saeed Anwar	107	Sharjah	October 30, 1993
	131	Sharjah	November 1, 1993
	111	Sharjah	November 2, 1993
Herschelle Gibbs	116	Colombo	September 20, 2002
	116*	Colombo	September 25, 2002
	153	Potchefstroom	October 3, 2002
AB de Villiers	114*	Gwalior	February 24, 2010
	112*	Ahmedabad	February 27, 2010
	102	North Sound	May 22, 2010